172 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 



II. PINICOLA 



(A) ENUCLEATOR. Pine Grosbeak. 



(In Massachusetts a winter-visitant of veiy irregular appear- 

 ance.) 



(a). 8-9 inches long. (J , carmine. Back dusky-streaked. 

 Belly, almost white. Wings and tail, duskj^ (or black) ; former 

 with much white. $ , "ashy-gray above and streaked. Paler 

 below, and not streaked." Crown (and rump) marked with 

 rustj'^-yellow. 



(6). Dr. Brewer says: "No positively Identified eggs of 

 the American Pine Grosbeak are as yet known in collections." 

 A European specimen measures about 1-00 X "75 of an inch, 

 and is greenish, blotched and spotted with brown and purplish, 

 chiefly dark tints. Mr. Boardman found near Calais, Maine, 

 "in an alder-bush, in a wet meadow," a nest and two eggs, 

 referable to this species. 



(c). The Pine Grosbeaks spend the summer-season in the 

 cold regions which lie to the northward of New England, and 

 though, I believe, common winter-residents in Maine and New 

 Hampshire, are rather rare, or at least irregular, in their ap- 

 pearance about Boston, and other parts of this State. They 

 are sometimes common here throughout the winter, wandering 

 in large flocks from place to place, but at other times are 

 wholly absent during the year, or at the most arc seen but 

 once or twice after a cold " snap " or a heavy storm. I have 

 seen them from the first of November until the latter part of 

 March, though their departure usually occurs earlier in the 

 season, since they habitually breed in March and April. It is 

 to be remarked that among our winter-birds of this family, the 

 young almost invariably predominate, and often are unaccom- 

 panied by mature specimens. This interesting fact has not, so 

 far as I know, been satisfactorily explained, though it may 

 possibly be due simply to an inabilitj' of the .young to with- 

 stand the cold so well as their parents. Yet these birds are 

 supposed to be regulated in their migrations almost entirely 

 by supplies of food, and not to be affected by cold, since in 



